1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to apparatuses and methods that record and reproduce data, and in particular to such apparatuses and methods that receive, and record and/or reproduce program data including video data and/or audio data and include a temporary storage region in the form of a ring buffer to temporarily record the program data and a long term storage region recording data for a long period of time, and furthermore are capable of time shift playback to record program data to the temporary storage region and simultaneously reproduce the data.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally a variety of technology has been disclosed for data recording and reproducing apparatuses capable of time shift playback as described above.
For example Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-170319 discloses that in time shift playback, overwriting a portion to be reproduced in a storage and reproduction apparatus is prevented. More specifically, when a current location in a ring buffer that is reproduced precedes a location that records and a current recording rate is faster than the location reproduced, the reproduction rate is compulsorily accelerated.
In time shift playback employing such a temporary storage region as described above when a user for example performs an operation to switch an operation of a data recording and reproduction apparatus to recording employing a long term storage region a point to record data needs to be changed from the temporary storage region to the long term storage region. This requires cumbersome control as the regions are separately provided in the apparatus, and conventionally there has been a need for simplifying such cumbersome control.